Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport examining officers were employed by HM Passport Office in each year since 2010.

The table below shows the number of Her Majesty's Passport Office full-time
equivalents working within the passport operational Directorates.
The formal record for workforce data is made on the last day of each calendar
month. We have therefore provided the data as of 31 March of each year.
(a) 2011- 2,586
(b) 2012- 2,216
(c) 2013- 2,389
(d) 2014-2,593

Due to the limitations of the HR management system used prior to Dec 2010, it
is not possible to provide reliable management information below top level for
any periods prior to that date.